Yesterday was the last day of the season. It was actually a youth hunt and the season had been closed for a week here in East Tennessee. It was raining and the Denver game was about to start. I was too nervous to watch the Broncos and my son and I had plans to hunt. Despite the weather, we went to a nearby property and climbed in the barn where I have some couch cushions laid out next to a saw horse looking out the hay loft. He hadn't hunted there with me yet so I sat him down and helped him get set up. He glassed the field in front of him and I glassed the woods in his blind side. An hour passed and the rain got heavy and cold. I smoked a cigar as the wind was right. In his blind side I caught a glimpse of a furry twitch. I raised my glasses and saw a deer stand up right where I had been glassing for an hour. Once I explained where it was my son instantly got buck fever. It was awesome! There were many limbs in the way and I had to talk him down several times. The deer just stood there for several minutes shielded by the tree limbs. When it took it's first step it nearly fell down. There was a small clearing 15 yards away and the deer ever so slowly and painfully was headed that direction. I tried to use a grunt call to encourage him to move and some times encourage him to stop. He never made it to the clearing. I could see a good opening for a neck shot and I made my son take several deep breaths and reposition his rest to get horizontal and vertical stabilization. He was eager. I grunted a few time while looking through the binos and the deer took a half step. With my mouth half open and my tongue about to form the word, "shoot", he shoot, BANG, the deer rolled up. 175 yards neck and shoulder shot from the 300 WSM. Perfect. My son is 6' 5" and he leaped to his feet and cracked his head really good on the header to the hay mow. He wanted to jump out of the opening that was 10 feet high and get his deer but I made him go the long way while I kept the glasses on the deer.

For a kid who shoots a lot of airsoft, he handled the big rifle well. I was maybe more surprised than proud!

It turned out the deer had a broken left front ankle that at one time was a compound fracture. The wound was pretty nasty but probably a month old.

In the picture he's winking because the hoist rope slipped and whipped him in the eye. hehe.

Good for you... gotta start them off when they are shorter to reduce head injuries

Ha ha. . He's 16. We've been trying for a while. In his younger days he wasn't all that into the whole "getting out of bed early" thing...... To be frank, I had to ease him into the whole hunting thing...... I may have created a monster now!

Great story. I am looking forward to taking my two grandsons hunting as my grandfather did me. My oldest is seven and has been with me and his father several times. You have started yours down the road of great memories.